April 11, 2016

The Andean bracelet technique is a wonderful way to create a 2 ply yarn using up all of your hand spun singles. The drawback of the technique is that you use a hand to wind your yarn on and you can't easily stop in the middle of winding. After you created your bracelet you can leave it on your wrist (again not very practical if you need to stop) or transfer it to an object, like an empty toilet paper roll, but you have to be careful it doesn't slip off and you are left with a tangled mess (especially if you put a lot of twist in your singles).

There are several plying tools on the market, but none of them were exactly what I was looking for. So I decided to create my own. This plying tool is lightweight, portable, and your finished bracelet won't slip off. The process is very simple and the materials cheap and easy to obtain.

Here are the instructions on how to create and use your own DIY Flutterply!

What you need

One wooden clothespin. You'll need one of those old fashioned peg type designs (see picture) and not one with a spring. You can often find them in craft stores and of course you can buy them online. In the Netherlands you can find them at Dille & Kamille, for example.

Some cardboard large enough to fit the "butterfly" design. The thickness much be such that you can easily slide the clothespin on and off. Don't worry about it being too loose, the yarn will hold it in place later. It would be more of an issue if it fits too tight and will be difficult to remove. I used two thinner cardboard parts and glued them together.

Step 1: cut out the butterfly. If you cut out multiple layers glue them together.

Step 2: Add the peg to the wings and you're almost done....

Step 3: Cut a small slit at the bottom of on of the wings to hold the start of your single.

Of course you can now embellish as you wish. Colors, buttons, glitter.... just remember that there will be yarn wound around part of you butterfly (see the instructions below) so you want to keep those parts free of things the singles could catch on. Also take care you don't use things that can transfer color onto your carefully spun singles.

If you want to make a sturdier more fancy version you can also cut out the wings from some thin MDF or plywood. I want to try this myself if I can find a suitably thin piece of wood and when I do I'll show the result here of course.